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Punjab-origin man in Canada hatched conspiracy to kill U‘khand mining trader
Police have identified the accused as Prabhjot Singh, alias Pannu, Rajwinder Kaur, and Sukhdev, alias Sebi. The two shooters from Punjab who were hired for the murder are absconding, said a senior police officer, adding that efforts were on to nab them
Dehradun : Three people have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 70-year-old mining trader in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district, police said on Tuesday, adding that the accused provided support to two shooters from Punjab.
Police have identified the accused as Prabhjot Singh, alias Pannu, Rajwinder Kaur, and Sukhdev, alias Sebi. The two shooters from Punjab who were hired for the murder are absconding, said a senior police officer, adding that efforts were on to nab them.
Pannu was arrested following an encounter with a police team on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, said the officer. “Subsequently, two others were arrested on the basis of his questioning.”
The police also recovered a pistol, eight live cartridges and two empty cartridges from the accused, the officer added.
On October 13, mining trader Mahal Singh (70) was shot dead by two assailants near the front gate of his house at Kundeshwari village in Kashipur, police said. A week before his murder, the trader had received a threat call from Canada from one Harjeet Singh, alias Kaale, the officer said, adding that a special investigation team (SIT) was constituted to probe the matter.
Following chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s instructions, director general of police Ashok Kumar had given a three-day ultimatum to officers to solve the case or face action.
According to the police, Kaale had conspired to kill the 70-year-old owner of stone crusher as he wanted 50% ownership in his business, which was rejected by the latter.
“After failing to get ownership in the victim’s stone crusher, Harjeet Singh wanted to open a new stone crusher with Pannu, but the victim created hindrances in that too,” senior superintendent of police (US Nagar) Manjunath TC told reporters.
“Harjeet and Pannu then conspired to kill the elderly man… Pannu received two shooters from Kashipur railway station on October 12 and arranged a motorcycle for them.”
The SSP further said that before the incident, Pannu left for Kedarnath to evade arrest. After examination of CCTV footage and on the basis of tip-offs, the police came to know that Pannu was hiding in the forest area in an attempt to escape.
When a police team asked him to surrender near the Banjari Gate, he opened fire at them around 2.30 am, said the senior officer. Later, Pannu was arrested and after his questioning police also arrested the other two accused who supported him in the conspiracy, the officer added.
A case was registered against Harjeet and his son Tanvir under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, police said, adding they would initiate action to extradite them from Canada.
